HC defers Delhi govt mandate to private schools to constitute fee regulation committees

The Delhi High Court on Saturday deferred the implementation of the Delhi government’s mandate to private schools to constitute a ‘school level fee regulation committee’ (SLFRC) for the upcoming academic session.

A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia said, during the pendency of petitions challenging the government decision, the constitution of SLFRC shall remain in abeyance, and the schools shall be entitled to collect the same fees for the academic year 2026- 2027 as they did the previous academic year.

Any exorbitant fees, the bench added, shall be regulated as per the law.

The bench passed the order on pleas by several school associations seeking a stay on the February 1 notification by the Delhi government that asked the schools to set up the SLFRC within 10 days.

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The petitioners include Delhi Public School Society, Action Committee Unaided Recognised Private Schools, The Forum of Minority Schools, Forum for Promotion of Quality Education for All, Rohini Educational Society, and Association of Public Schools.

“It would be expedient to defer the constitution of the SLFRC during the pendency of the petitions, which as it will be hard finally on March 12, 2026,” the court opined.

The schools claimed that the notification was legally unsustainable as it changed the timelines prescribed in the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Act for the constitution of the SLFRC.

The government, however, argued that the “dates” given in the Act were neither “sacrosanct” nor did they form part of its “basic structure”, and therefore “slight tinkering” with such timelines as a special one-time measure would survive.

The government asserted that the Act was meant to prevent commercialisation and profiteering by schools, and the notification stand to cause no irreparable loss to the schools.

On February 1, the government issued a gazette notification to “smoothen” the implementation of the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Act after the Supreme Court raised questions over its new fee fixation law.

According to the notification, every school was directed to constitute a school-level fee regulation committee within 10 days of the publication of the order.

It said that school managements must submit details of the proposed fee structure for the next block of three academic years starting from 2026-27 within 14 days of forming the SLFRC, after which the committee will proceed to fix the fees according to the provisions of the Act.

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